The Monday Post… Art everywhere, as far as the eye can see.

When I go anywhere with Jelina, art is always on her mind. It wasn’t any different this weekend as we sojurned in Victor Harbour for the weekend.

As I wrote about in the last post, we were there for the ‘I Am Here‘ exhibit at the Coral Street Artspace in the heart of Victa (as we South Aussie affectionately call the town of Victor Harbour).

This was Jelina’s first foray back into the arts after 6 years of absence while writing her PhD. She submitted the first draught last Friday, so had a weekend free from thoughts of academia, if that is ever possible. To celebrate and participate in the event, Jelina broke out a couple of her signature hand-made felt dresses that went on display and a few spectacular felt necklaces to sell on the day.

The real standout was the set of panels but you can read more about them in the last post.

We took rest of the weekend was taken at as slow a pace as possible and saw some of the sights. A morning walk in the surf at nearby Port Elliot was the real highlight for me – sunlight, clean water, clean air, nobody around… Heaven.

Weekday evening meals were a bit more difficult. Victa is a tourist town and is suffering from the ‘inconveniences’ of covid, border closures and lockdowns. There were few places open for evening meals but we did find a couple of restaurants but for two nights made our way to the Indian/Mexican restaurant at Port Elliot. We found it one night while out looking for food and returned for more the next. The best Mango Chicken I’ve had in many years!

Our stay was at the Grosvenor hotel and had a nice little room that opened to a balcony that had a good view if the town and a little glimpse of the ocean. 5 nights there was nice, with no other folks around in our side of the building bar one night.

Over the weekend, we tried to move around to as many little family owned shops and eateries so that our limited budget could reach out into the local economy. I reckon we did pretty well!

Stand out meals and nibbles were at the following places, if you’re ever at Victa – schnitzel at The Grosvenor hotel, Shaa-Kou-Tuh-Ree for coffee and pancakes , several good meals at Ind’O’Mex, great pick me up juices at Romy’s, vegan bits at Delicia nibbles and coffee at Qahwa during the day. Cafe Primo for one night’s dinner too!

Any inconveniences we suffered. from due to the covid precautions were pretty insignificant when we the heard stories of some of the locals. I realised that it doesn’t matter what folks feel about masks, vaccinations and the other goodies awaiting us due to the pandemic. The place that we both work from, in our hearts and minds, is the place where we all must band together to help us all get through. There are a million facts and conspiracies out there, you can cherry pick trends and information to create a package tailor made to to fit snugly with your world view but the thing is that none of it matters if we don’t help each other out. Governments won’t do it, big business won’t do it, the billionaires won’t do it. It has to be us – the folks on the streets, the small business owners, local charities… you get the picture.